- Jul 25, 2007
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I am with everyone saying they want to give folks to Smith to play with / off of. However -- I don't think it's time to try him with Celebrini or Wennberg.
- Wennberg is not a natural winger even if he's played it in the past, he moves smoothly and defensively positions himself well in open ice, but he's not exactly mucking it up winning along the boards, in contrast to e.g. an Eklund who despite his size has gotten pretty damn good along the wall... also, Wenny's not the guy if we're looking for a finisher / high offensive hockey IQ guy for Smith, and if all we're looking for is defensive help, well, he has that with Kunin and Goodrow.
- Celebrini is about to start his 2nd pro hockey game ever. No matter how amazing he's going to be, I think it would be risky, foolish to play the two rookies together
- Moreover any lineup that pushes Smith to Wing, I think, is premature. Already our system seems to be pretty fluid with forwards in the DZ where the first F back (F3) takes up the center role for a bit until the zone play stabilizes, but in the OZ Smith is often off the wall looking for space (see his first goal) and if we put Celly with him, are we asking our center to now play F1 / play along the wall? Why?
- Anything where we put Smith with one of Eklund, Toffoli, Granlund makes a lot of sense to me.